Book Talk

Suspense and a Different Drummer

New fiction from best selling authors has arrived this month.  Suspense is always popular and Laura Lippman offers What the Dead Know. A woman involved in a traffic accident claims to be one of two sisters who had disappeared thirty years earlier. Where is her sister, where had they been and why hadn’t she come forward? Every clue she gives leads to a dead end.

Absolute Fear by Lisa Jackson, features Eve Renner, recovering from a gun shot wound in New Orleans. A series of ritual killings in which all the victims are tattooed with 212.101.111.323 and the only other connection among them is the Our Lady of Virtues insane asylum.

There’s a new addition in Randy Wayne White’s Doc Ford series. Doc Ford is a former government agent in his second career as a marine biologist. Trouble seems to find Ford and he often calls upon his former skills. In Hunter’s Moon Ford saves a former president from an assassination attempt. No good deed goes unpunished and he finds himself involved in the death of the president’s wife and other nefarious deeds in South America.

Two stellar British mystery authors have new books this month. Ian Rankin has written The Naming of the Dead. What looks like a simple suicide turns quickly into an international incident when a delegate to a global conference falls to his death. As bodies stack up Inspector Rebus becomes involved in one of the most difficult cases of his career.

Death Comes for the Fat Man, by Reginald Hill, features Dalziel and Pascoe. Detective Superintendent Dalziel lies near death after being injured in an explosion, while friend and colleague Pascoe tracks down the Templars. This mysterious group believes that the only way to fight terrorism is with terror. Unfortunately, they have friends in high places.

Friends in High Places, by Marne Davis Kellogg, has retired jewel thief Kick Keswick called back into action when her jewel substitutions are about to be revealed. Greed, murder, ancient castles, a mysterious figurine lead Kick closer to a ruthless enemy.

Leslie Bennetts The Feminine Mistake: are we Giving up Too Much? explores the conflicts of combining family and career. While the model of the stay-at-home mom has been touted as best for the family, Bennetts examines the surprising benefits of work outside the home. She feels that what women give up in financial autonomy and intellectual challenge make her and her family unacceptably vulnerable.

Following her dream, Lois Pryce traveled 20,000 miles by motorcycle across the Americas from Alaska to Argentina. Lois on the Loose encounters all kinds of fellow bikers and unusual situations.

Most of us take for granted our ability to function in everyday social situations. For the person with autism, these behaviors are not intuitive. Temple Grandin and Sean Barron, both autistic, have written a guide to the basic rules of social interaction in Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries through the Unique Perspectives of Autism. Though geared for the autistic, anyone can benefit from learning these rules!

A unique spirit, David Pearlman almost died after a dog bite. When he recovered he felt so different he renamed himself Papa Neutrino. A true free spirit he believes everyone can be truly happy by seeking out their deepest desires. He has invented football plays, built a raft out of street garbage to sail across the Atlantic, been a musician, explorer, polymath, and preacher. Read about this amazing man in The Happiest Man in the World: an Account of the Life of Poppa Neutrino by Alec Wilkinson.

Virginia Cooper
Adult Services Librarian
April, 2007